When we hear the name "Mr. Rogers," we tend to feel warm, nostalgic, and hazy: Mr. Rogers was the soft-spoken, comforting, kinda square guy from a children's television show that many of us watched. When we thought of him, what we probably retained were the pleasant, impressionistic memories of his sweaters, songs, and puppets.
Then the documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? arrived in theaters to give us a new perspective on a man we hadn't thought much about since childhood, a perspective that seemed to arrive just in time for an ailing nation. Fred Rogers wasn't just a nice man in a sweater. He was a firebrand with a cause, determined to give children the respect they deserved, determined to spread love as an antidote to hate and division, and determined to use the medium of television to change the world.
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